I assume with MRI , CAT scans, x rays , etc. that it would be rare for someone to get surgery when they don’t know what the problem is or where it is.
Yes, sometimes it is when imaging doesn’t answer all the questions.
If you count biopsies, sure. My cancer couldn’t be imaged well so something like 10 samples had to be obtained. Ouch.
Well, I personally would not count biopsies.
Wikipedia says that vets do more exploratory surgery than medical docs.
Here’s another way to ask the question. Is there some kind of exploratory surgery that Blue Cross often paid for 50 years ago and would refuse to pay for now?
One of my dogs had an MRI which is rare but we have a MRI here at NC State vet school
Frequently. (SICU nurse here.)
Not rare. Imaging is not perfect. Many things do not show reliably on a random image. Things like esophageal muscle spasm or interstitial cystitis or many other things.
This goes back 20-odd years, but I did once know a slightly delusional person who was certain they had some sort of stomach ailment. They saw multiple doctors and took many tests, which always came up negative. They absolutely bristled at any suggestion that the issue might be psychological. Finally after enough doctor-shopping they were able to convince one to open them up for an exploratory procedure.
Nothing was found. The person remain convinced they needed another exploratory procedure , but at this point they were finally stymied as doctors were understandably hesitant to keep cutting them open ad infinitum.
You always hear about doctors missing something until a courageous patient through sheer persistence forces them to find a real problem. But sometimes there really is nothing to be found.
Since you brought up veterinarians, I will offer this:
I have brought two or three stray cats I have taken in to a vet. The sole reason was to determine their gender. When I have done so it is because the cats were long haired and, I’ll admit it, I could not discern the gender.
I have no difficulty with short hair cats.
In one case Dr. Anderson shaved the cat and opened “her” up to determine that “she” was in fact a “he.” To be fair, Dr. Bob did so because I suspected the cat was pregnant and if so, I wanted the fetuses aborted.
Not pregnant. Not even female. So yes, exploratory small animal surgeries do exist.
The former “Mrs. Beasley,” is sleeping soundly on my workstation tower as I write. It’s now just Beasley.
I love my cats.
Not sure it counts, but a colleague was having mysterious abdominal pain, and as scans did not provid enough information, they had to open him up to see the problem. I believe they did the surgery to corrrect the problem at the same time, rather than putting him through anethesia again.
Another colleague did have exploratory surgery on his hip to try to find the source of the pain. Didn’t have anything removed/added, but will probably need a hip replacement in the next 20 years, if not sooner.
Heh. One of the reasons I picked a particular kitten at the shelter was because they told me it was male. I had a name all picked out: Phineas. When I went to pick “him” up after neutering, they said there had been a mix-up and the kitten was female. So I called her Zoey instead, but I still had my heart set on a cat named Phineas.
So I did what any sensible cat lover would do: I adopted another cat, this one definitely male, to name Phineas.